General

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Originally, the collective Thai name for warblers and the other smallest insect-eating native birds was the onomatopoetic term นกกระจิบnók krà-cìp('krà-cìp bird'). Today นกกระจิบnók krà-cìp is ornithologically restricted to tailorbirds and prinias in the family Cisticolidae. Current ornithological warbler names were largely coined by a Thai ornithologist, with each name covering several large groups within the old Sylviidae.

Although the Locustellidae in Thailand comprise only two genera, they use three different names. This is because some of the genus Locustella were earlier placed with other genera, notably Bradypterus, giving rise to the current mixed naming.

Species belonging to the original Locustella are known as นกพงตั๊กแตnók pʰoŋ-tá-ka-taeen'grasshopper-thicket-bird', modelled on the older English term 'grasshopper warbler'. This incorporates one of the main Thai ornithological names for the old Sylviidae assemblage, นกพงnók pʰoŋ'thicket-bird'. This name is also used for the Acrocephalidae and for the genus Graminicola (Pellorneidae).

Species belonging to the original Bradypterus are identified as นกกระจ้อยnók krà-côaay'very-small bird'. This is another of the main ornithological names coined for the old Sylviidae. It is based on the adjective (กระ)จ้อย(krà-)côaay'tiny, very small, etc.'. Besides Bradypterus, the name is now used for many genera in the Scotocercidae and a couple of species in the genus Seicercus (Phylloscopidae), as well as the Gerygone fly-eaters or wren warblers (Acanthizidae). From English influence, in popular language กระจ้อยkrà-côaay now also means 'warbler' in the sense of a human songstress.

The genus Megalurus has only one member, Megalurus palustris, which goes by the distinctive name of นกหางนาคnók hăaŋ-nâaknaga-tail (bird)', owing to the similarity of its graduated tail feathers to the multiple heads of the 'naga' (Sanskrit and Pali nāgá), a deity or being taking the form of a huge snake.

Family name

The family name used here, วงศ์นกพงตั๊กแตนและนกกระจ้อยwoŋ nók pʰoŋ-tá-ka-taeen láe nók krà-côaay('grasshopper-thicketbird and warbler family'), is from (23), where it is proposed as a name for the prospective family of Locustellidae (Megaluridae). At the time this was envisaged as comprising the Megalurus, Graminicola, Bradypterus, and Locustella genera.

セッカsekka is used in Japanese for several small warbling birds in the Cisticolidae, Locustellidae, and Phylloscopidae. The etymology is unknown. It is written with the ateji雪加 (literally 'snow-add') or 雪下 (literally 'snow-below'), characters assigned on the basis of sound only with little or no relation to etymology or meaning.

Sennyū, a term for grasshopper-warblers, is of unknown etymology. It is written with characters meaning 'enter fairy' or 'infiltrate'. The characters function as ateji, an attempt to represent the pronunciation with characters that have little or no relationship to the meaning or etymology.

ไพลpʰlay (Zingiber cassumunar, Zingiber montanum, or Zingiber purpureum) is a plant in the ginger family (Zingiberidae) widely used in traditional Thai medicine. Extracts typically have a greenish yellow to brown colour, and the name is used here as a colour word equivalent to English 'olivaceous'.

นาคnâak 'naga', from Sanskrit and Pali nāgá, is the name of a deity or kind of being taking the form of a huge snake, sometimes with multiple heads. Here the graduated tail feathers of Megaluris palustris suggest the traditional representation of the heads of a multiheaded naga.

Check-list of Thai Birds Round, Philip D., Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, Bangkok 2008. Draft version downloaded from the site of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand in 2009 but no longer posted there, an expanded update of the species included in Lekagul & Round 1991